The present disclosure relates to a sheet feeding device configured to feed a sheet and an image forming apparatus including the sheet feeding device.
In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, a sheet on which an image is to be formed is fed by a sheet feeding device from a sheet feeding cartridge or the like to an image forming part. The sheet feeding device is provided with pickup roller, a feed roller and a retard roller. The pickup roller feeds out a sheet from the sheet feeding cartridge. The feed roller conveys the fed sheet to the image forming part. The retard roller conveys the sheet one by one without double feeding. These rollers come into contact with the sheet and thus are worn away by friction with the sheet. Since a sheet feeding failure occurs if such wearing advances, it is preferable for the rollers to be easily replaced and repaired.
A conveying path of the sheet fed from the sheet feeding device is different depending on the specification of the image forming apparatus. A conventional conveying path includes an S-path route and a rear face C-path route. The S-path route is formed such that a sheet is conveyed along a substantial S-shaped path toward a sheet ejecting device from the sheet feeding device disposed on a front side of the image forming apparatus. The rear face C-path route is formed such that a sheet is conveyed along a substantial C-shaped path on a rear face of the image forming apparatus at the time of duplex printing. In the case of the S-path route, since the retard roller is disposed in the sheet feeding cartridge while the pickup roller and the feed roller are disposed in an apparatus main body, the retard roller is easily separated from the pickup roller and the feed roller so that it makes easy to replace each of the rollers. However, in the case of the rear face C-path route, since these rollers are disposed on a rear face side of the apparatus main body, it is difficult to replace the rollers.